i just downloaded a compiler that is supposed to be newbie friendly from www.bloodshed.net and was wondering if anybody here knew anything about it. i downloaded it cause it comes with a C/C++ guide. i was curious if it was a better alternative to cygwin.

I think Zeno was implying that Cygwin is better because it's more than just a compiler, it's a full UNIX emulation environment with a ton of UNIX tools and packages.

I think Zeno is wrong, because quite a few people don't give a crap about all those tools; they just want a top-notch Windows C++ compiler and a nice development environment. ;)

Bloodshed is a decent setup. It may not be perfect for MUD coding, though, as many MUDs are going to require all those tools Cygwin comes with. If you're coding from scratch, you probably don't need anything Cygwin has, unless you want to target UNIX systems. You can, of course, install both, should you decide you want Cygwin's packages and Bloodshed's IDE.

i now have cygwin installed and working, andLinux installed and NOT working properly, and bloodshed installed and i don't know how its working cause i haven't used it yet. i'm sure i've got all my bases covered as far as having compilers installed, now the next step is to learn how to get andLinux working and also learn how to use bloodshed. that way i'll have everything i could possibly need when it comes to coding.

In my opinion, no C compiler is "newbie friendly". However some of the above like like Visual Studio Express and Borland Builder have IDE's that provide context sensitive help on C standard library functions and error messages.

lol ok i'm running out of hd space on my computer so i'm done downloading compilers. i have an external harddrive but don't wanna put compilers on it cause that would just be super slow (i tried putting cygwin on it and it took forever to compile a completely clean code)

I'll warn you right now, Dev-C++ is likely going to have issues compiling *NIX based code, like what you have for your MUD, if you're just looking for an IDE, then it'll serve you well, as long as you only compile in CYGWIN or andLinux. I used Dev-C++ before I got to sink my teeth into a shiny new copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional, that my school paid for. (I won some contest between students and got to pick a program relevant to my field of study for free. ;) Needless to say, they were a little ashamed they didn't put a price cap on it. :P)

I still don't compile in VS though, I always put the code right back in my Linux environment, and compile it there. I guess that's my distrust of Microsoft doing something right though…